The Eighth Amendment

The Eighth Amendment provides that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Its words come almost directly from the English Bill of Rights of 1689. The ban on cruel and unusual punishment applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, as does the excessive fines clause, which the Supreme Court incorporated in Timbs v. Indiana in 2019 in a case involving the forfeiture of a car.

The Court has interpreted cruel and unusual punishment in light of what it calls evolving standards of decency. In Furman v. Georgia in 1972, it struck down death penalty laws as applied, and in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976 it allowed executions to resume under revised procedures. It has since barred executing people with intellectual disabilities in 2002 and offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes in 2005, and limited life without parole for juveniles. Prison conditions and medical care are also judged under the amendment.

The death penalty remains the sharpest dispute. It is authorized by federal law, the military, and roughly half the states, though several of those have paused executions, and its use has declined since the 1990s. In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson in 2024, the Court held that enforcing public camping bans against homeless people is not cruel and unusual punishment. Supporters of a narrow reading say the clause should be limited to punishments considered cruel in 1791, while others argue it must reflect modern values.